Chasing Dreams
by eonsofmemories
Summary: Lindy repeatedly has bitter encounters with Jake (Leo Howard), unbeknownst to the fact that he is the very fashion designer she longs to work with. What will happen when both of them find out they are to work together almost 24/7? Will sparks fly, or will emotions burn in the aftermath to come? Rated T. LEOLIVIA. PAUSTIN.


**hey everyone! Wow long time no see huh. No, I haven't disappeared from fanfiction haha. Honestly, I didn't think I'd be coming back but this new idea just popped into my head and I just had to write it; I've been wanting to do a leolivia/i didn't do it fanfiction since the pilot of the show too, so I'm really excited. Obviously, this story is going to be AU and polar opposite love and hate hehe.. again. It's a story of where Lindy works as Leo's intern, and sparks obviously fly. **

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**Context/Background: **

**Lindy and Logan are brother and sister just like in the show**

** Jasmine is in high school and married to Logan (EEP PAUSTIN/Jogan FTW! :D) - i know it's totally unrealistic for a girl to marry someone in high school - i just need it this way for the story **

**Both Jasmine and Logan are OOC. **

**Leo Howard is an OC - the new guy. His character name is Jake Anderson. He's a hot-shot fashion designer from London, UK, and is about a couple years older than Lindy. Since he is from London, he didn't need a bachelors' degree to become a fashion designer :) Just trying to keep the age difference at a minimum. **

**Sorry, you won't see much of Delia or Garrett in this story, since it's mostly a Leolivia/Linake story. **

**so here's the sitch of the story: **

**Lindy, Jasmine, and Logan all live together with their families in one house in the fictitious, cultured, and traditional small town of Springdale. Lindy and Piper are high school students; Lindy aspires to be a successful fashion designer. Jake Anderson, household popular name known by JA, is a world-famous, renowned fashion designer residing from London, and comes to Springdale with the purpose of a new fashion project, seeking traditional and cultural inspirations for his new collections. Lindy repeatedly has bitter encounters with Jake, unbeknownst to the fact that he is the very fashion designer she longs to work with. **

**And that's where our story takes off...**

**AN: **

**I apologize for my horrible writing skills in this chapter. I haven't written stories in forever, so I'm a little rusty. I wrote, re-wrote, and edited the chapter, but I'm still not satisfied. *sigh* I can only hope you enjoy the read!**

**Also, this is going to be a slow story. I don't know about you, but those stories where the boy and the girl meet, then instantly fall in love, are not my cup of tea. I mean, then the story would be over so soon. It'd be such a short love track. So all I wanna say is Leolivia shippers hang in there; jindy, in this case, will happen! They've got a long way to go, it's just the beginning! :)  
**

**I apologize if this first chapter is too cheezy in some parts, sorry, it just couldn't be helped. I'm a total bookworm and watch tons of chick flicks, it was bound to happen. **

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Chapter 1: A Fiery Welcome to Springdale

It was celebration time in the peaceful town of Springdale. All residents, men, women, children alike, were buzzing around to and fro the streets lighting firecrackers on the ground for the annual festivities that were held every year since the beginning of when the town had first been founded were happening.

Of course, Lindy Watson and her friend Delia definitely weren't ones to miss out on the jubilee celebrations. They were currently walking down the town streets, dimly lit up by streetlamps scattered down the narrow lanes with small houses.

Suddenly, Lindy's jaw dropped, "Oh no! Delia, I forgot the presents at home!" It was an annual tradition in Springdale. Everyone who attended the festivities would bring gifts in tiding, which would be exchanged in random as a token of good cheer and will across the townsfolk. Back then, it was an effort to sustain peace among the folk, but everyone had loved the idea so much that they did it every year now.

Delia frowned upon hearing Lindy's words and her forgetful tone, "Lindyy!"

But Lindy knew how to solve every situation in a practical or logical manner. "Hey, it's okay. We'll quickly go home, get the presents, and then go to the Square okay?"

"Okay cool."

Just then, Delia's phone began to ring. She leisurely took it out of her pocket and held it to her ear. "Hello? Yeah, mom. WHAT?! Okay, I'm coming."

"What's wrong?" Lindy asked, worried for her friend as she was talking on the phone to her mother. "Is your mom okay?"

"Oh yeah, she's fine. Listen Lindy, something came up. I really have to go, I'll meet you at the Square in 20?"

When it came to her friends, Lindy was always an understanding soul. "Yeah for sure, no worries! I'll get the presents and then meet you straight there," she said with a smile.

"Awesome, you're the best Lindy! I promise I'll tell you what's up after the ceremony!"

Lindy chuckled, "Bye Delia."

Delia ran off, her brows furrowed in tension, but not without calling behind her back, "Thanks again Lin!"

Lindy silently let out a few laughs as she walked down the street.

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Firecrackers on the ground began to erupt right by her feet as she made the next step, alarming her. She jumped on her tiptoes repeatedly upon stimulus from the light of the firecracker. But after the initial alarm on her face faded, her face occupied an expression of squealed giggles and innocence, she just loved seeing the firecrackers light up.

After a bit of fun with the local kids playing on the streets, her eyes drifted to a black, suave SUV driving down the narrow street and finally halting to a stop, ignorant of the people walking on the roads. How dare he, someone could get hurt! Doesn't he know that vehicles other than motorcycles and small cars aren't allowed in these narrow lanes?

"I'm gonna go teach that guy a lesson right now," she said to herself in a determined voice.

She didn't really know if a male was exactly driving the vehicle, but she could care less. All she knew was that the person behind that wheel was being completely oblivious to all the people roaming on the roads. Had he no shame?

She angrily walked over in two long strides from the right side of the road to the SUV a bit away. She faced the tinted glass window, and could not make out a face behind the black-tinted glass.

Determined, she used her knuckles to knock on the glass, "Excuse me. Lower your window, please." She told the person inside, angry yet polite.

Moments passed, and no response.

Huffed, she took a deep breath and tried again, knocking repeatedly on the tinted glass once more. "Excuse me! Please lower your window," she said again, more anger visible in her voice.

The tinted glass finally lowered itself to about a little more than halfway its length, revealing a pair of hard, stone-like but nevertheless still a deep brown colour eyes. That was the only thing she could see - the rest of his face was buried in the darkness of his vehicle and the dark of the night. She peered a little into the window, curious. The eyes looked like it belonged to a man, and were faced towards the front and windshield of the SUV. It was as if he was making no effort to point out that he was simply not interested in what Lindy wanted.

Out of the corner of his eye, he saw that the girl had not moved an inch, and her eyes still wandered over his eyes, in curiosity. Giving in, he shifted his eyes and turned his face over his shoulder towards the girl standing by his vehicle.

Apart from his eyes that had just turned towards her own, the rest of his face was still in unknown, lurking waters - a deep sea of darkness - to Lindy.

She'd had enough of this. "Who are you?" She called out, loud enough for him to hear past the barrier of the tinted window glass.

"Excuse me?" The man replied, his voice was deep and full of mystery.

If Lindy would've met him in a different situation, she would've taken note of the fact. But the fact was, she didn't. "I asked, who are you? And why are you here?"

The man shifted his eyes away from her, annoyed. He pulled his finger on the trigger to raise the window back up, shutting her away.

"He-hey!" _I can't believe he just raised his window on me! _

He then brought his phone to his ear, and began to converse with the person on the other line, completely oblivious to Lindy trying to get his attention.

She was just about to retaliate again, when she noticed a bunch of naughty kids putting unlit firecrackers on the back of his vehicle. "Hey, stop that!" Lindy objected. She ran towards the naughty bunch of boys, shooing them away. "Something could happen to his car!" She scolded them as they all ran off, giggling away. Soon after they scampered and scurried off, she began to untangle the thread of firecrackers from the ladder rack and back tires on the back of his SUV.

While Lindy was busy in untangling the pesky thread of firecrackers, the man inside the vehicle had finished his call, and decided to finally confront the girl for intruding. Who was she to ask who he was and what he came here to do? That was none of her business. In fact, it was no one's business. This is why he never should've even come here. So uncivilized.

He pushed on the handle, and opened the door wide, stepping onto the hard ground beneath him. Not seeing the girl who had been constantly nagging him for the past ten minutes, he noticed a faint, shadow silhouette of a figure at the back end of his vehicle. He walked towards the back of his car, and saw a girl untangling something from the ladder rack on the surface of his SUV.

"What's going on here?" He said in an authoritative manner.

Lindy's concentration on the entanglement of the firecrackers suddenly broke in the blink of an eye when she heard that same, familiar deep voice again. Her hands let go of the thread, and she turned herself around to finally face the man she had been wanting to confront for so long now.

The man also faced the pretty, young girl before him. She had beautiful brown, deep orbs of eyes, silky, smooth blonde hair, luscious light, natural pink coloured lips, and a face that any man would happily give up his life for.

As the two strangers finally were face to face, something in the air of Springdale had begun to change. It was as if the arrival of this new man into the town would change the ways of the town as they knew it. The wind began to pick up speed as Lindy's hair swayed, her hair blowing slightly from the breeze.

Moments passed as they both just looked at each other, stared into each other's eyes. To the man, there was naivety, innocence, and wonder in Lindy's eyes, while to Lindy, the man in front of her - his eyes displayed emotions of - well, she didn't even know if she could read ANY emotions at all - all she could see was a dark void, hatred, loneliness.

Suddenly, she broke out of his trance and stuttered to explain what exactly she was doing at the back of his SUV, "Uh-uhm, well some kids were - "

It was then that the man noticed the threads of firecrackers on the ladder belt and back tires of his vehicle. His face dropped with horror and shock. "Take all of this off! My car will catch on fire!" He hurriedly said, jumping to his feet to start to untangle the threads, quite like Lindy was before. Except this man was doing it much faster.

Lindy finally acknowledged his words, and focused on the task at hand, shortly after he had began to untangle the threads. She bent down and kneeled to the ground, her feet planted, trying with her fingers to untangle the firecrackers on the tires.

Suddenly, her eyes wandered to a spark at the other end of the thread a couple inches away from them. The spark began to pick up, and no sooner than later, the firecrackers began to burst. Thankfully, the man and Lindy had managed to free the thread from his car.

However, Lindy's jaw dropped immensely on seeing that her scarf had been tangled with the front end of the firecrackers. "Ah! My scarf!" She began to shout in horror, "My scarf will get burnt!"

The man immediately caught attention of her voice, and noticed that the firecracker was coming closer and closer to the scarf on the ground. In less than no time, it was obvious that if they didn't do something fast, SHE would end up getting burnt along WITH her scarf.

_OH no! _"Help! My scarf!" She screamed again to the stranger with her.

His jaw dropped as well, and hurriedly grabbed a hold of her scarf near her body. Both of them, in a panicked state, tried to untangle her scarf from the firecracker. But it was no use, the more they tried to untangle it, the more it would get _en_tangled. The burst of crackers continued to spark, and were but a few inches away from her body.

_Desperate times call for desperate measures_.

He grabbed a chunk of the bottom of her scarf in his hands, and tore it away from the rest with a jerk of his hands. Immediately, the firecracker disentangled from her scarf and fell to the ground away from her body, leaving them both unharmed.

Both of them took in heavy sighs of relief. _Thank God. _

* * *

"WHAT?! You think _I _put the thread of firecrackers on your car?!"

"What a strange girl," he said to her. "First, you come knocking on my window, and ask me completely nonsensical questions. Then, you put the firecrackers on my car. Why? What's your problem? Do you PLAN on blowing me up?" _Just because he didn't acknowledge her knocking doesn't mean she can kill me. How foolishly immature._

"Hey! Now wait just a darn second." She interrupted, aggravated. "You think you can park your car here? Do you OWN the street? I very well know guys like you, mr. You come here with your fancy shmancy cars to just woo all the girls here."

The man profusely rolled his eyes, "What nonsense!" Was she being serious right now?

"Now _leave_. Or else I'll call the police," Lindy gave him an ultimatum.

"Oh really." _Cute, real cute. _

The man pulled out his phone and extended it towards her as it hung in the air in his hands.

Lindy was bewildered at his gesture. "What?" What was she supposed to do with his phone?

He took her hand and put his phone in her palm. "Call the police. C'mon." He threatened. "Everything will be clear as to who has done all this," he said, gesturing to the slight remains of firecrackers on his SUV.

Angered with his gesture, she huffed and grabbed HIS hands this time to put the phone back into his hands. "I DIDN'T do it already! Those kids did it!" She told him, gesturing with her eyes towards the kids playing with sparklers in their hands a few feet away.

"Hey kids, come here!" She said, approaching them.

The kids eyes' grew wide at the sight of Lindy and the man, and they all corrected their posture and stood up straight.

"Okay, tell this man who did all this."

"Go on," Lindy urged them, politeness in her voice.

"Okie Mr." Lindy smiled as the kids were so behaved and at least had realization of their mistakes. "_She _was the one who did it,"

"Yeah, of course! I - " She was so caught up and convinced that the kids would tell the truth, that her jaw literally dropped when they said that she herself had done this. "Huh?! Oh why you, - just you little munchkins wait," she said as she ran after them.

The man watched as the girl ran after the group of boys. But the little munchkins were too fast, and slipped away from her fingertips. Disappointed, she turned back around to go back to the man she was just arguing with, but was disappointed even more.

His SUV was driving away down the narrow lanes, never to return. Or so she thought.

She huffed for the umpteenth time that night, aggravated at the night's events. What a great start to the festivities of the year, she sarcastically thought to herself. Ugh, what a jerk.

**Okay, just gonna stop right there! How'd you like it? Good? Bad? Let me know! This is my first story in the i didn't do it fanfiction archive, and I would love to hear your thoughts! :) **

**Stay Tuned! Xx **


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